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Russia: Opposition Rally in St. Petersburg

Veronica Khokhlova · 19:44

A surprisingly large opposition rally took place in St. Petersburg Saturday: a few thousand people, old and young (some came with their children, even), broke through police cordons and marched along Nevskiy Prospekt, the city's main avenue; dozens were hurt in clashes with riot police, and dozens ended up detained. Two opposition leaders - Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Kasyanov - spoke to the crowd; the third one - Eduard Limonov of the National Bolshevik Party - got arrested before the rally began. Some of the rally's slogans - “Russia Without Putin” and “This is Our City” - reflected the dual nature of the protest: as Mr. Kasyanov said (RUS), “residents of St. Petersburg are facing not only federal problems, but a huge number of issues directly related to the life of the city.” St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko called the rally “a provocation” and stated that its organisers “came from Moscow, accompanied by 120 young extremist protestors.”

Here's some of what LJ user aneta_spb (a St. Petersburg journalist of Belarusian descent) wrote (RUS) about the rally:

In this case, I don't care what flags people were carrying. What's important is that the most popular slogan - the one that everyone supported - was: “This is our city!”

Some deja vu, isn't it, residents of Minsk and other compatriots-Belarusians?

It was very interesting there. Take the second attempt of the march towards Nevskiy! The first time we moved forward, they dispersed the column and detained a few dozen people. So what? We went the second time and broke through. The riot police cordon was broken FOUR TIMES. Anemic St. Peterburgians, suffering from avitaminosis, from old men to redhaired artistically-bohemian-looking young women - they were marching on those well-fed (but, as it turned out, poorly trained) people in uniform. […] I'm proud of St. Petersburg. […]

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Ghana: Perspectives of Ghana at 50

Emmanuel.K. Bensah · 10:15

lingua → zhs · zht · zht

Like most Sub-Saharan Africans, Ghanians use the English language—not only as a lingua franca, but also as the official language. They use English on top of many local languages—and dialects—spoken and heard throughout the country. It therefore comes as a little surprise that (young) Ghanaians might just fall a tad short of being conversationally-challenged with regard to their local language.

So ingrained in the culture of the country is the use of English that Maximus of Ghanablogs.com finds himself:

ashamed to identify myself as a Ghanaian. Why? Because I don't know my mother tongue (Twi) as well as I know English. I can't speak, write, and read it as well as I do English. Sad I know. You want to know another shameful secret? I was born and raised in the Greater Accra Region, but I can't speak Ga. Yep, you read right. Don't worry my family and friends still tease me. I can blame the educational system and lots of people, but the number one person to blame is me. I should have paid more attention in language class

Another communication challenge is that of the execrable, or very poor, service of the leading mobile telecommunication provider in the country—Areeba, which Abocco, of GhanaConscious writes:

he interesting thing is how Areeba continues to capture the bulk of the market. Their promotions and investment in marketing a few years ago have really paid off to the point that the ‘cool' and ‘chic' phone service to have is Areeba. Compound this with the fact that it is cheaper to make calls from one Areeba customer to another than to someone with a different service, one is doomed to get an Areeba chip since most of friends use it anyway. In the meantime, they have the worst network and instead of improving it, they are focusing on becoming more ‘attractive' by sponsoring entertainment events and embarking on more promotions

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Links for Roundups

East Asia

Malaysian politician Lim Kit Siang is laments the fact that Malaysian universities are failing to make Malaysian universities are missing from most listings of notable universities in the world.

Oceania

Intlligentsiya blog is reporting that Fijian Military has released Fiji Daily Post's general manager Mesake Koroi. The blog says “Koroi was taken by soldiers to Queen Elizabeth Barracks yesterday morning after a letter was published in the newspaper yesterday titled ‘The Great Conspiracy' which “alleged and named conspirators” in the December 5 coup.”

East Asia

Steve Suphan translates a Thai newspaper story that talks about Thailand's culture minister offended by “small group of Rajaphat University students clad in sexy short skirts and tight top shirts, smoking cigarettes and chatting to black male tourists at Wat Pho”.

East Asia

Traveling on a budget and still want to try great food, Bunnywunny recommends the Malaysian city of Ipoh. The blogger has pictures to prove her point.

East Asia

In a post titled Chinatown with Suthon, Austin Bush visits the interesting eating places in Bangkok's Chinatown. Suthon Sukphisit writes a weekly food column in Bangkok Post newspaper.

East Asia

TinkerTailor spots an ice hockey game in a Singapore skating rink that featured western Singapore expats playing against western expats from Thailand.

Middle East & North Africa

Whether it's in Syria or Canada, buses will always be a pain as Canada-based Syrian blogger Omar writes.

“we're standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus… only the bus was already there, but the freakin' driver has left it to go out for a smoke.
so you're standing there, feeling your jeans slowly becoming as cold as a steel plate.”

South Asia

chapati mystery on the perception of Jinnah in the academic and state circles through the years. “Since The General’s ascension, the “Heroes of Pakistan” focus has shifted towards the more brazenly militant ones and the earlier generation’s focus on Jinnah and Iqbal has softened considerably. Just recently, the religious party Jamaat Ulama-i Islam [JUI] decided that Jinnah was no freedom fighter, because “he did nothing for Islam and Pakistan, made no sacrifice and never went to jail”. Such a public stance would have been un-heard of, at any previous time.”

South Asia

United We Blog! on the national flag in Nepal. “Our new democratic national flag must be able to embrace our diverse ethnicity, culture, religions, gender, and inhabitance of different geographical regions with the promise to guarantee our civil liberty and human rights; with the federal democratic electoral system for governing our constituents by the elected representatives from each constituent residence.”

South Asia

Democracy For Nepal has a list of “to do”s to accelerate growth and development in Nepal. “Focus on the information/telecommunications infrastructure more than on the physical infrastructure. Bathe the country with FM technology, the internet for the masses. Encourage the private sector to do most of it. Offer 10 years of schooling through the air waves: evening school perhaps. Target adults and children both. This makes illiteracy kind of irrelevant.”

South Asia

Unheard Voices links to an article on Hizbut Tahir, which it brands as the Islamic Student Movement in Bangladesh, provoking an interesting discussion in the comments space. “Also, we can complain as much as we want about brainwahing, but there is a qualitative difference between the stereotypical youth fundy of yesteryear - uneducated, rural, lower-income, marginalized, raised in madrasah, susceptible to indoctrination - and the profile of the new activitists described in the article - educated, urban, from the mainstream, and high income.”

South Asia

Salam Dhaka on involvement in politics being influenced by the impact on survival. And the answer to the question - What's in it for me? “The people have taken responsibility of their destiny. They do not expect anyone to be their great saviour. Democracy, constitution, human rights are all buzzwords for the guys like me with a fast computer connection and a stomach full of food. It makes great political commentary but has to relevance to the people. “